A civil rights attorney and pending Howard University professor is among the dead after a commercial jet collided with a military helicopter Wednesday outside Washington D.C., family and school officials said.

Civil rights attorney Kiah Duggins was among the 64 passengers and crew on the American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, D.C., that plunged into the Potomac River Wednesday evening after colliding with a military helicopter.

"Kiah believed in radical love, unwavering truth, and the fight for a better world," family member Aisha Duggins said. The Wichita native was 30.